Being a Rover at Rover

At previous jobs I have had to wear many hats. Despite the frequent context switching, it has never really been an issue for me. It keeps me well-rounded and I rather enjoy that.

At Rover, we have a DevOps/Data team who call themselves the Jindos. The Jindos take care of our (virtual) infrastructure and making sure that as a company that we have access to all the data we need and that it is fresh.

The Jindos are kind of in a world of their own. Their duties and responsibilities are a little different than the other tech teams. They also have a slightly different toolset. Because of the “uniqueness” of their position, there are opportunities for cross-pollination among the other tech teams.

Members of our other tech teams participate in a Jindos rotation, where we each get to spend two weeks with the Jindos. During the rotation we participate with the Jindos on their current projects, go to their daily sprint meetings, etc. We are essentially embedded in the team for a couple of weeks. This is actually a great experience for a couple of reasons. First, it gives us an idea of what the Jindos work on and what their pain points are and perhaps offer a more developer-oriented perspective. Secondly, it gives us the opportunity when we are not wearing our Jindos hats to better support them in case they are short on staff or otherwise require assistance from a developer.

When I was in Jindos rotation, I was able to offer my Python programming and packaging experience to a software project that they use and maintain. At the same time, I was exposed to a host of tools and technologies that I was not aware of before, but I can now take with me in my day-to-day activities.

After you’ve done a Jindos rotation, there is a piece of Jindos that doesn’t leave you and vice versa. There are benefits for the Jindos, for your own team, as well as personal benefits. It’s a win-win for all.